The Hanoverian jewels later on…...Archived Message
Posted by Nellie on February 28, 2015, 12:46 am, in reply to "The Hanoverian Claim"
In the past in threads here on the RJWMB many of us have been thrilled at the adventures of the Hanoverian jewels.
Bury starts at 1714 and ends at 1867.
Bury ends with - The ultimate irony was the disappearnce of Hanover as a KIngdom annexed to Prussia in consequence of an alliance with Austria which resulted in resounding defeat. For fear of having them impounded, Countess Julie Kielmansegge smuggled the jewels into England, where they remained until the emergency passed. Exciting stuff!
The jewels returned to England !
Smuggled back to England
In Twining, there is a much longer tale of moving the treasure and jewels about over some years, even buried in the ground.
Eventually, the tiny crown was hidden in the lace bonnet of Countess Kielmansegge and the "courageous , wonderful old lady travelled all the way to Vienna with this heavy ponderous piece of jewellery on her head. The jewels were sewn into the clothes of five ladies........" Eventually transported to England.
In the Windsor Archive is a note of December 1948 by Queen Mary. [Drum roll and cheers !!]
Queen Mary wrote After reading the enclosed story about the saving of the Hanoverian Crown Jewels in 1866, I remembered that my Aunt the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz had told me that when she was coming to England on a visit in 1870, when she arrived at Calais to embark in her special steamer (in those days every member of the royal family was given a special steamer for crossing the Channel), a Hanoverian lady she knew met her and asked whether the Grand Duchess would give her a passage to England because she had the Hanoverian crown jewels sewn into her dress and that the crown was inside her hat, she was to deposit them in the Bank of England in London for safe keeping. Of course the Grand Duchess consented readily. This lady must have been the Countess Kielmansegge mentioned in the story.